So-called demand response (DR) is known that enables a stable power supply as a result of a power consuming utility adjusting the amount of power usage or the amount of power generation in response to a request from the power supply utility side such as an electric power company.
The power supply utility side provides an instruction for a required amount of power reduction or power generation to an aggregator (or directly to a consuming utility), and the aggregator provides the required amount to a consuming utility (or an aggregator) in the form of a demand response. At this time, in order to achieve the required amount required by the power supply utility side, the aggregator needs to accurately allocate and request the amount of power reduction or power generation to the consuming utility. For this reason, the aggregator first needs to select, from among a plurality of consuming utilities (power facilities that are power consuming facilities or power generation facilities (also referred to as “resource”)), a consuming utility (power facility) to which “power reduction quantity/power generation quantity” is provided.
It is often the case that the selection of the consuming utility (power facility) by the aggregator so as to achieve the required amount required by the power supply utility side is based on know-how that relies on human judgement based on the actual reduction or power generation achievement, weather conditions, and the like in the past corresponding to the reduction level or power generation level of the power facility. However, it is difficult to cope with a change of the consuming utility or an increase in the number of consuming utilities, and there is a need for an automatic consuming utility selection technique by an aggregator.
In recent years, a technique has been proposed for automatically planning a power reduction or power generation demand response event on the power supply utility side by grouping consuming utilities into consuming utility groups based on past demand-response data of the consuming utility side, and selecting and using a consuming utility group (see Patent Literature (PTL) 1).